Ecstasy

The police seized 7 thousand liters of hydrochloric acid in a barn in Molenschot, Noord-Brabant on Tuesday. Investigators believe the substance was intended for the production of synthetic drugs, the police said in a statement on Wednesday. A 35-year-old man from Ulicoten was arrested.

The police dismantled a drug lab in a residential area of Geldrop, Noord-Brabant on Wednesday. The resident of the house was caught in the act of producing ecstasy pills in a shed behind his house when the police raided the property. The man, his wife and his son were all arrested, the police said in a statement.

Officers found 18 thousand ecstasy pills and 20 kilograms of MDMA, which is used in drug production, on the property. Another 10 kilos of ecstasy was found in a garage box used for storage.

The Koninklijke Marechaussee arrested six Dutch persons in May and June after taking down an online shop for drugs. The six are suspected of running the online store, the Marechaussee said on Facebook on Tuesday.

The suspects ran the drug shop on the dark web. Drugs were sent to customers through regular parcel services, disguised as packages from other online stores.

The suspects come from Haarlem, Lelystad and Hilversum. They are between the ages of 21 and 55 years, according to the Koninklijke Marechaussee - a policing force that works as part of the Dutch military.

Between 2012 and 2016 alcohol consumption in Amsterdam decreased, but the use of hard drugs like ecstasy, cocaine and amphetamine increased, health service GGD revealed in its Amsterdam Health Monitor 2016, Het Parool reports.

For the Health Monitor te GGD questioned over 8,600 Amsterdam residents between the ages of 19 and 64 years about their physical and psychological health, daily habits and health care. The service then compared the results to a similar study done in 2012 and 2008.

Young people in the Netherlands use more drugs than their counterparts in other European cities, according to an annual report by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). In the age group 15 to 34 years, Dutch were on the top of the list when it comes to ecstasy use in 2015, NOS reports.

A massive 6.6 percent of Dutch in that age group use ecstasy. Ireland comes in a far second place with 4.4 percent. The European average is 1.8 percent.

Popular designer drug 4-Fluoroamphetamine, also known as 4-FA and 4-FMP, will be banned in the Netherlands beginning Thursday. The party drug will be on the classified as "List I" under the country's drug laws, meaning it will be labeled as a hard drug.

Arnhem residents will have the opportunity to test their ecstasy pills for free on King's Night, Wednesday April 26th. IrisZorg is setting up an ecstasy testing station on Ir. JP van Muijlwijkstraat 195 where drug users can make sure that their ecstasy is safe, the Gelderlander reports.

The drug testers will use the outer features of a pill - diameter, thickness, color, logo - and an acid test to check whether the pill is on the recognized list. The list contains pills that have been analyzed by a lab several times over the past period. It updates weekly.

Drug criminals seem to be moving their activities from the southern parts of the Netherlands to the rest of the country, especially when it comes to ecstasy, the police concluded from the latest figures on ecstasy, RTL Nieuws reports.

Former CDA treasurer in Leende Wim van der P. was remanded into custody for at least another month by the court in Den Bosch on Thursday. He is suspected of involvement in a massive drug lab found in a building on his property last month, the Telegraaf reports.

CDA treasurer in Leende Wim van der P. denies that he is involved with a major drug lab discovered in a warehouse at his home last week. On Wednesday the 51-year-old man said that he rented the warehouse out and that he is just as shocked and surprised by the discovery of the drug lab as everyone else, ANP reports.

Carnival group De Lolmaakers in Leende decided not to participate in this year's carnival parades on Saturday. On Thursday the police discovered a massive drug lab on the property where they were building their float. As they are not allowed on the crime scene, De Lolmakers won't be able to finish their float in time for the parade.

Stinky white smoke curling from a chimney led to the discovery of an ecstasy lab in Eindhoven on Sunday.

Passersby noticed the smoke on Rapenlandstraat and called the police around 10:00 a.m. Officers and firefighters agreed that the smelly smoke was suspicious and decided to search the building. Inside they found a large ecstasy lab in "full operation", according to the police. No one was in the building while it was searched.

The police made a gigantic drug bust when they searched a truck in the Zeeland town of Rilland on Thursday night. According to the police, the raw materials they found in the truck can be used to make 1 billion ecstasy pills, ANP reports.

Inside the truck the police found hundreds of bottles of hydrogen gas, 15 thousand kilos of caustic soda (drain cleaner) and 3 thousand liters of excipients. The trade value of the raw materials amounts to hundreds of thousands of euros, according to the Zeeland police on Twitter.

An internationally sought drug dealer was arrested while shopping for groceries in Tilburg this weekend. The 38-year-old man is believed to be part of the mafia and was arrested at the request of the Italian authorities, NOS reports.

The Italian authorities suspect the man of heading an organization that traffics drugs - cocaine and ecstasy in particular - on Sardinia. He has both Dutch and Italian nationality and has been internationally wanted since spring last year. The man can face up to 24 years in jail in Italy.

A 77-year-old man was one of three caught red-handed unloading nearly 4 thousand kilos of cocaine in Hazeldonk last week, the Telegraaf reports. According to the newspaper, "drug grandpa" Jan B. from Wernhout is no stranger to the police in the world of hard drugs and has been arrested several times in connection with drug cases over the years.

Earlier in August the Koninklijke Marechaussee - a policing force that works as part of the Dutch military - broke down a drug line run through postal packages. Four suspects were arrested, the Marechaussee announced on Thursday.

The Public Prosecutor is in favor of extraditing Turkish drug smuggler Ayhan S. back to his home country, despite the political unrest currently going on in the country, he said in the court in Amsterdam on Thursday

Farmers in Noord-Brabant are regularly approached by drug criminals asking if they can rent an empty barn for up to 1.5 hundred thousand euros, NRC reports based on a survey by mayors and investigative officers.

A toddler was hospitalized after eating an ecstasy pill he found in a primary schoolyard in Hoogezand. Doctors believe the boy will be fine, but he will stay in the hospital for 24 hours for observation, according to a letter the school director sent to parents.

The drug 4FA, also known as ecstasy light, is seeing an increase in popularity in the Netherlands. More and more drug users are opting for this lighter drug because of the increasing potency of ecstasy, Daan van der Gouwe of the Trimbos Institute said